Let's have some fun! I'm sure some of you remember things from 1.xx that were, in hindsight, absolutely hilariously stupid, but widely accepted as "the way it is meant to be played". Or something that makes you cringe in shame or laughter, or some idea that was great on paper, but horribly implemented?

I will update this post with the best memories once per day for a week or so, and I think it will shorten the time until the next beta for some of us! Let me start with some things I remember...

Do you remember the time, when......the most efficient way to EXP as a mage was to have your whole party run around naked and force them to stand right in the middle of all AOE attacks they could catch? (1.0 beta until some months after launch)

...raising shield skill was only possible by being attacked, having your shield arm up, being lucky enough to block, and then lucky enough to proc the skillup? (1.0 beta until some months after launch)

...the trip from 10 to 50 was a winding path paved in different shades of Coblyn? (about half a year into 1.0)

...the simple act of getting your equipment repaired required you to sell your firstborn either to a crafter that happened to have exactly the required materials on him, or to the repair NPC that asked ten times the amount of gil that was in the whole **** game - and then stopped at the 50% durability mark? (until about half a year into 1.0)

...failing the same leves over and over was the best way to skyrocket to 50? (I forgot exactly when that was...)

Additions 2003/03/04...we all bought collectors editions to be the first to experience the sweeping improvements since the beta, just to find out there were none? (credits to MrMissile)

...we literally had to rummage through the pockets of every single retainer zombie in the market wards, just to discover that every single one sold marmot meat? (Kierk reminded me)

...when people started to realize that even renaming "surplus EXP" to "bonus EXP" didn't change the fact that after a few hours of playtime, up to 90% of your efforts were transfered to TANAKALAND, never to return? (LebargeX)

...making a LV5 hammer required a LV 20 recipe? (TwistedOwl)

...the wish to wear a green robe made people mine for colorbugs, and rage in agony after they found out that finished canvasrobes could not be dyed anyway, and the respective hempen parts required not colorbugs but colorleaves... and the latter came only in red, brown, and shocking pink? (also TwistedOwl. Man, I shed a tear of laughter there!)

...Aldgoats could literally SNEEZE you to death, because SE had no idea how to explain the mandatory ranged attack every monster was equipped with in any meaningful way? (DamienSScott)

...the road from Ul'dah to the Limsan ferry was lined with LV∞ ants that had nothing better to do than to 1-shot innocent damsels after appearing out of thin air? (Xoie)

...the best way to sell your marmot meat was to use a lag exploit to place your Galka retainer directly in the middle section of the "Fighter Weapons" marketward? (own memory)

...lag in open beta was so bad that you could (LITERALLY! I tried!) attack a sheep in La Noscea, then make a dozen squats before it even turned red (own memory)

...after a typical day, your inventory was full with 100 markot meats, 25 marmot meats +1, 7 marmot meats +2, and some super-rare marmot meat +3. Which meant that poor NPC vendor "Pimelle" in burning hot Ul'dah was constantly surrounded by hordes of vailant adventurers frantically battling the lag while trying to get rid of their half-rotten mole intestines. The stench. (own memory)

Additions 2003/03/05...powerleveling became the norm, and normal EXP parties the last refuge for red-haired stepchildren? (credits to catwho; luckily I quit before that happened!)

...leveling a craft to 50 required mainly two things: a turbo controller and a healthy appetite for TV series? (GDLYL)

...rabid fans went as far as to produce private commercials in order to somehow justify the broken fatigue/surplus/bonus EXP system? (thanks, Montsegurnephcreep; see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1kM-9adCjY for a prime example; I wonder what that guy is doing right now... working in the PR department of Shinra Inc.?）

...main scenario bosses could literally be prattled into submission with the parley system? (own memory)

That first to 50 race, and how much drama it caused. People keeping the best leveling places a secret . Also, leaving people behind who were "naughty." OH why did you nerf mah barbs! I remember fighting Raptors in Coerthas in a 4 man party and getting 5 adds. Totally won too! Barbs = da bes. Oh and thaums being better tanks that glads.

I think the the Conjs ******** about melee not getting hit enough trumps all though. My brain can't and probably never will process that assbackwardery. "Come on guys, you need to take more damage!" Oh Tanaka. . .

Or when people were banned because they healed too much and the exp from healing was really high. They ended up hotfixing the healing after day 2-3, but still sucked if you were doing what you were supposed to be doing and getting banned/suspended in the process :(.

Potential Customer: Hey, can you craft me a red one of these? I have the mats. Me: Those aren't the right mats. And that doesn't come in red. Another frustrated, confused, & disappointed customer.

Lots of complexity in those original synthesis recipes. Plus many of the low-mid level items people wanted we couldn't make until much later. Because it was a higher level craft and/or took a higher grade mat no one had yet. Some of them were just straight up broken too.

Wasn't there a point where almost every monster in the game had a ranged attack for no reason?

Nothing like traipsing past a gaggle of high level antlions in Thanalan guarding the only bottleneck on the way to the level 10 - 20 camp and getting an invisible hadoken from one of them for 9999 damage, forcing you to walk all the way back from town to do it again.